Reading Room Document

Award of Attorney Fees in Administrative Adjudications Under § 609 of the Federal Aviation Act

The Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) authorizes an award of attorney fees to prevailing parties in administrative adjudications conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board under § 609 of the Federal Aviation Act to review decisions of the Federal Aviation Administration. There is no support in the terms of the EAJA or its legislative history for an argument that an individual's eligibility for an award of fees—and an agency's liability—are confined to situations in which the agency whose position is at issue in the adjudication also controls its conduct; in any case, agencies generally have only a limited power to review their administrative law judges' decisions under the EAJA. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22986/download.

March 23, 1982